MedicineSurgeryGastroenterologyTransplant ImmunologyTransplant SurgeryColorectal SurgeryGastrointestinal SurgeryIntestinal TransplantationLiver TransplantationPancreas TransplantationTransplant RejectionAbdominal Wall TransplantationMulti-donor TransplantationMultivisceral Transplantation
I N 1958. the year experimental liver replacement was first attempted in Chicago and Boston. mtesunai transplantation was born In the same crib and involved many of the same problems and contributors. Eighteen yean before Wall'sl and Benichou's':: contributions for prolonged liver preservation. Richard Lillehei gave a repon at the 1959 Amencan Surgical Assoc:iation. describing the preservation of intestinal grafts by immersing them in iced saline. J Owen Wangensteen. Lillehei's chainnan at the University of Minnesota. dismissed the cool reception given this paper by citing Benjamin Franklin's report two centuries before to cnticisms about some matter of debatable ment. Franklin's rhetoncal reply was What IS the goO<l oi a newborn baby'? Well. who can say·? The Intestinal babv was premature and remaJ.ned ICU-bound for 30 years. . .l..t first. Its fraternal twin. liver transplantation. fared only slightly better. The use of the two organs togelhcr (plus more, in an organ complex (Fig I) was lampooned at